True to his word and totally befitting his rep as a great teammate, Nick Chubb didn't hold up the Browns for top dollar in a three-year contract extension. (Getty Images)
Browns keep Nick Chubb in the fold with three-year contract extension
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Editor's note: Tony Grossi is a Cleveland Browns analyst for TheLandOnDemand.com and 850 ESPN Cleveland.
On Friday, Joel Bitonio, the longest-tenured Brown, said this about running back Nick Chubb:
“He’s just a special guy. Of great teammates in my eight years here, Nick Chubb’s one of them. He just does everything right off the field, on the field. Never hear him complain. I mean, never hear him at all. It’s special to block for that guy.”
On Saturday, the Browns rewarded that great teammate with a three-year contract reportedly for $36.6 million, including $20 million guaranteed.
The deal binds Chubb to the Browns through the 2024 season, at which he will be 29 years old. The $12.2 million average is a nice raise over the $3.384 million Chubb will make in base salary in 2021, the last year of his rookie deal. But analysts are calling it an extremely team-friendly deal.
Added to his existing contract, Chubb will average just under $10 million a season over the next four years. That puts him eighth among NFL running backs, trailing Christian McCaffery ($16.015 million average), Ezekiel Elliott ($15 million), Alvin Kamara ($15 million), Dalvin Cook ($12.6 million), Derrick Henry ($12.5 million), Joe Mixon ($12 million), and Aaron Jones ($12 million).
Since he was a John Dorsey second-round draft pick in 2018, Chubb has 17 100-yard rushing games -- second in the NFL in that time and third-most by an active player in his first 44 games. Chubb owns two of the three-longest rushes in Browns history and since 2018 he is first in the NFL with 34 rushes of 20-plus yards. He has averaged 5.25 yards a carry the past two seasons.
Much like teammate Kareem Hunt, a native of Willoughby, who signed a two-year deal last season for $12 million total, Chubb gave the Browns a home-team discount.
Money was never his goal in seeking a new contract. Staying in Cleveland was.
“It would mean a lot,” Chubb said at minicamp in June. “Cleveland drafted me however many years ago it was, trusted me and put their faith in me to come here and help build this culture of this team I have been a part of it. I feel like, yeah, Cleveland is where I want to be and hope everything can work out in that direction.”
On Friday, GM Andrew Berry declined to tip his hand about the timetable for a new contract for Chubb and other extension-eligible core players such as Baker Mayfield, Denzel Ward, Wyatt Teller and Ronnie Harrison. All the while, Berry was putting the finishing touches on the first of those deals.
It was quite obvious that Berry was not going to let Chubb’s current deal expire and allow him to leave in free agency in 2022.
In March, Berry said of Chubb, “I think you all know the affinity that we have for him both as a player and as a person. He has modeled that over the first three years of his career here. I think that is something that we certainly see every day and that you all can see externally.”
